India Team In Discussion During UAE Match - (Source : AFP)
On Wednesday, September 10, India locked horns against UAE in their first match of the ongoing Asia Cup 2025. It was a perfect game for the Men in Blue as they handed UAE a nine-wicket defeat to sit on top of the table with a net run-rate of +10.483.
The Suryakumar Yadav-led side opted to field first, and the decision turned out to be gold as India restricted the UAE to just 57 runs. In reply, Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma got off to a flying start as the Men in Blue finished the match in just 4.3 overs.
It was a perfect game, but several questions still remain unanswered ahead of the Pakistan match, which takes place on September 14 at Dubai International Stadium. Meanwhile, this article will look at three unanswered questions for India during their UAE match.
1. The Surya-Tilak Batting Dilemma
With the UAE game, the Men in Blue almost confirmed that Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma will be their opening pair for the rest of the tournament, putting the rumours of Sanju Samson starting the innings to rest.
However, against the UAE, when Abhishek returned to the pavilion, India captain Suryakumar Yadav walked out to bat, instead of Tilak, who has cemented his place in the Indian team at No. 3.
Thus, despite playing against the UAE, it is unclear whether Tilak, who has batted at No. 3 for the longest time in the past few months, will bat at No. 3 against Pakistan or if the management has decided to send SKY at No. 3.
Looking at Tilak, his two consecutive centuries vs South Africa came at No. 3, and the southpaw has played all three T20Is vs England at first down.
Meanwhile, SKY, on the other hand, has played two T20Is at No. 3 in 2025, which feature a duck and a 14-run innings. Thus, it is unclear whether his promotion against the UAE was just to get some runs and get back in form, or if it is actually a new tactical decision, where SKY and Tilak's batting order will be based on the situation of the match.
SKY And Tilak's Stats For India At No. 3 In 2024 and 2025
| Criteria | Tilak Varma | Suryakumar Yadav |
| Innings | 6 | 9 |
| Runs | 349 | 225 |
| Average | 116.33 | 25 |
| 50/100 | 1/2 | 2/0 |
2. Sanju Samson's Batting order is unclear
Prior to the UAE match, India's practice matches hinted that Jitesh Sharma is ahead of Sanju in the pecking order. Unfortunately, Samson was touted to be out of the playing XI because of Gill's inclusion at the top.
However, the management managed to make a place for Samson, who was placed in the middle-order, a new position for him. However, courtesy of India's early win, the wait to figure out Samson's batting order just got extended until the Pakistan match.
It was to be seen whether SKY and Co would have utilised Samson as the upper-middle-order or below than the likes of Hardik Pandya, just to finish things off.
Now, it has also crept in a doubt whether Samson's selection was made possible because of a low-quality encounter like UAE, and the right-handed batter might actually make way for Jitesh vs Pakistan.
3. Who Is India's Death Over Specialist?
The Indian bowlers were so good on Wednesday as they restricted the UAE to 57 runs in just 13.1 overs. Kuldeep Yadav was on song with four wickets, and the spinners took six wickets.
However, the question that unfortunately went unanswered was what were SKY's plans were for death overs. Notably, the Men in Blue were without Arshdeep, and Bumrah had bowled three overs in six overs, and the UAE had only lost two wickets.
Now, if the spinners hadn't been on song and UAE batters had batted for long, then who would SKY have trusted with the death overs, given Bumrah only had one over left in his quota and Arshdeep was not in the playing XI.
